Sugars are essential components for life, their analogues and derivatives forming the basis of numerous therapies, medicines and treatments.
Sugars are often polar, hydrophilic molecules, and tend to suffer from poor bioavailability and poor cell uptake by passive diffusion. Sugars may be subject to active transport into cells. However, this varies from cell type to cell type, and will be saturable at high concentrations.
A number of sugars undergo phosphorylation inside the cell in order to provide their desired function. This may be a rate-limiting step which limits the potency and availability of the sugar in biological systems.
Osteoarthritis affects more than one million people per annum in the UK. It is currently a poorly treated disease, with systemic treatments including NSAIDs, COX-2 inhibitors and other over-the-counter remedies. Surgery is a common treatment, but is disadvantageous as it is highly invasive, expensive, and of limited accessibility.
Glucosamine is widely used as an over-the-counter pharmaceutical composition for the prophylaxis and treatment of arthritis, most notably osteoarthritis.
It is desirable to provide an alternative and/or improved treatment for arthritis, preferably osteoarthritis.